Friday, June 20, 2008

It isn't very often that my job and my hobbies overlap, but it happened this week when I was looking at pictures from the most recent space shuttle mission. I saw these pictures of astronaut Karen Nyberg, the first taken aboard the space shuttle and the second on board the International Space Station.

Who do these photos remind you of?

She reminds me a lot of Sussa Paka, aka Spider-Girl (the original one). However, Karen is way too nice to join the Legion of Super-Villains, and as far as I know, she doesn't have complete (or even incomplete) control over her hair. Or, at least, I've never seen her expand her hair in a web to try to entrap foes.

Branson's Virgin Galactic isn't going to the space station, it's going up high enough to qualify for space flight where you get about 15 minutes of weightlessness (about the same as Alan Shepard on his first flight) before heading back down.

If you want to go on the space station, you'll have to pony up about $20 mil to the Russians. Money up front, please, you can't be like Lance Bass and say that the money will come from his TV gig and product endorsements that would surely follow, based on his celebrity status.

Anyway, I already knew that Branson's flights were suborbital. I meant space, period — 100 km, as I recall, by internationally accepted definition. And free fall that's not from a Vomit Comet aircraft (a trip costing a mere $5,000, as I recall).

One could ask how the fetching and undoubtedly capable Ms. Nyberg (or anyone else you work with) truly merited a $20-grand-grand trip, partly at my expense, and certainly not at hers ... but we won't get into politics. *sigh*